DENVER — The Miami Heat’s five-game West Coast trip began with a thud.
The Heat (7-3) fell to the Nuggets 113-96 on Monday night at Ball Arena. It tied for Miamo’s most lopsided loss of the season.
The Heat entered with the NBA’s second-best point differential, outscoring teams by 11.4 points per game.
But the Nuggets (6-4) controlled Monday’s contest from start to finish. The Heat’s biggest lead was one and its last lead came with 7:54 remaining in the first quarter.
Playing without two of their top two players in Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. because of injuries, reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic led the way for the Nuggets with 25 points, 15 rebounds, 10 assists, two steals and two blocks before he was ejected with 2:39 to play for shoving Heat forward Markieff Morris in the back.
Other than Jimmy Butler’s 31-point performance, the rest of the Heat’s top scorers were quiet.
Bam Adebayo finished with 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting.
Kyle Lowry was scoreless and missed each of his eight shots.
Tyler Herro scored 11 points on 3-of-12 shooting.
The Heat continues its trip on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Nuggets:
There was a very unfortunate and scary play in the final minutes of the game.
After Morris took a hard foul on Jokic, Jokic body checked an unsuspecting Morris from behind with 2:39 left in the fourth quarter.
Morris remained down on the court for several minutes and a stretcher was brought out, but Morris was able to walk off the court gingerly on his own.
The Heat announced shortly after the play, “Markieff Morris has walked to the locker room with an apparent neck injury. We will provide an update on his status when we receive it.”
Jokic was ejected following the shove and Morris was ejected because his hard foul was ruled a Flagrant 2. Butler received a technical as he yelled at Jokic.
It wasn’t a good night for the Heat’s top-five defense.
The Nuggets totaled 113 points on 46.2 percent shooting.
It was an uncharacteristic performance from the Heat, which entered with the NBA’s fourth-best defensive rating. Miami had also limited opponents to an NBA-low 41 percent shooting from the field before Monday’s game.
But led by Jokic, the Nuggets carved up the Heat’s defense from the start. Denver scored 30 points in the first quarter and entered halftime with 64 points on 51.1 percent shooting from the field.
The Nuggets’ 64 first-half points are the most that Miami has allowed in any half this season.
Denver, which entered with the league’s fifth-worst offensive rating, also did something not many teams have been able to do against Miami: Get to the rim.
The Heat entered allowed an NBA-low 20.9 shot attempts from within the restricted. The Nuggets finished 22 of 27 at the rim on Monday.
That helped negate Denver’s subpar 12-of-41 shooting night from three-point range.
It wasn’t a good night for the Heat’s top-five offense either.
Miami, which entered with the NBA’s third best offensive rating, shot just 39.7 percent from the field.
Aside from Butler’s 31 points on 10-of-18 shooting, the rest of the Heat’s roster combined to shoot 35 percent from the field.
For the second straight game, Miami struggled to generate shots around the rim. The Heat finished with only 14 shots from within the restricted area.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone is impressed with the Heat’s improved offensive rebounding. But Denver found a way to limit Miami’s second-chance opportunities.
“For a a team that seems like it never misses any shots, they’re either the No. 1 or No. 2 team in regards to second-chance points per game at over 17,” Malone said before Monday’s game. “That’s an amazing stat because it’s not like they’re at the bottom of the barrel and there are a lot of misses to be had. Even a little deeper than that, last year they were dead last in second-chance points per game at 10. So a seven-point increase is tremendous and obviously I’m sure Spo loves that. He’s getting extra possessions and extra points.”
On Monday, though, it was the Nuggets that was the better offensive rebounding team. Denver scored 19 second-chance points off 12 offensive rebounds compared to nine second-chance points off six offensive rebounds for Miami.
The Heat entered Monday with the NBA’s top rebounding percentage (the percentage of available rebounds a team grabs) at 55.8 percent, third-best offensive rebounding percentage at 31.6 percent and top defensive rebounding percentage at 78.1 percent this season.
That’s a drastic improvement from last season, when the Heat finished with the NBA’s ninth-worst rebounding percentage at 49.1 percent, second-worst offensive rebounding percentage at 24 percent and 12th-worst defensive rebounding percentage at 73.3 percent.
The Heat lost again in Denver.
Monday’s result marked the Heat’s fifth consecutive loss against the Nuggets in Denver — a skid that dates back to the 2017-18 season. Miami has lost its last four games in Denver by a combined total of 70 points.
The Heat owns a 13-22 all-time record in games played against the Nuggets in Denver, which can be a challenging place for opponents because of the altitude.
